The Most Complete Map of the Universe
27/05/2011.
Harvard-Smithsonian
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
The Universe! Everything is there, but how many of us have sat down to look at a map of this place? Well here's your chance: A team of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has made a 3-D image of the cosmos to a distance of 380 million light years away. Today is the larger picture we can see.
La vista panorámica de todo el cielo, en el infrarrojo cercano, revela la distribución de las galaxias más allá de la Vía Láctea.
The Most Complete Map of the Universe
Vista ecuatorial del catálogo de galaxias (6hr RA at center).
Distribución de las galaxias 2MASS separado por capas de corrimiento al rojo.
The map, known as the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS), representing 95 percent of the night sky and is said to be the map of the universe most comprehensive ever created. Govert Schilling in the journal Science explains that "the color codes for distance, the purple spots are nearby galaxies and the red dots are distant." The map need more than a decade to complete, even during that time one of its principal authors died, astronomer John Huchra, last October, before the work saw the light.
According to the authors explain, the map could help clear up a persistent mystery about why the Milky Way is moving as it does. Our galaxy is traveling around 370 kilometers per second, something difficult to explain if one looks at the seriousness of our closest neighbors. However, the map shows some "local massive structures" that had never been detected thanks to the detail that could affect the current position in space of the Milky Way.
There are bigger images and even video tours at the 2MASS Redshift Survey homepage.
Take a tour through the 2MRS data: Quicktime movie
See the redshift layers being added: Quicktime movie
